Sec. of the U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Dev. v. Rhodie

MEMORANDUM & ORDER Plaintiff, the Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), moves for a default judgment of foreclosure and sale against Defendants Michael Rhodie, Inez Rhodie a/k/a Inez Brooks, and James Dozier. (ECF No. 23.) Plaintiff has dismissed the John and Jane Doe defendants. (Id.) To date, despite being properly served with process and notice of the motion for default judgment, Defendants have not defended or otherwise appeared in this action. For the reasons set forth below, Plaintiff’s motion is GRANTED. BACKGROUND This action concerns mortgaged premises located at 70 Powell Street, Roosevelt, NY 11575 (the “Property”). (ECF No. 1 (“Compl.”) 10.) On June 22, 2011, Lornice Rhodie — as trustee of the Lornice Rhodie Revocable Living Trust — executed and delivered a fixed rate note and a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage, also known as a reverse mortgage, in the amount of $480,000.00 to Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. (“MERS”), as nominee for Nationwide Equities Corp. (Id. 8; see ECF No. 1-2 at 2-5 (“Note”)¹; id. at 7-18 (“Mortgage”).)² On October 26, 2017, MERS, as nominee for Nationwide Equities Corp., assigned the Mortgage to the Secretary of HUD. (Compl. 14; see ECF No. 1-4 (“Assignment”).) Pursuant to the Note, the lender “may require immediate payment-in-full of all outstanding principal and accrued interest if…[a] Borrower dies and the Property is not the principal residence of at least one surviving Borrower.” (Note at 3.) Upon requiring immediate payment-in-full in accordance with this provision, the lender is authorized to commence a judicial foreclosure action. (Mortgage at 13.) On August 5, 2018, Lornice Rhodie died. (Compl. 27; see ECF No. 1-1 (“Death Certificate”).) Following her death, the Property has been abandoned. (Compl. 19; see ECF No. 1-5 (“Affidavit of Inspection”).) Based on Ms. Rhodie’s death and the abandonment of the Property, Plaintiff commenced this action on June 4, 2021, seeking to foreclose on the mortgaged premises and the payment of all outstanding amounts due on the Note through a judgment of foreclosure and sale. (Compl. 22.) Plaintiff named as Defendants James Dozier — the surviving spouse of Ms. Rhodie and an original obligor under the Note — as well as Ms. Rhodie’s children, Michael Rhodie and Inez Rhodie a/k/a Inez Brooks, who are record owners and original obligors under the Note as successor co-trustees of the Lornice Rhodie Revocable Living Trust. (Id.